Financial Watch:

Cognos Signs Deal with The Boeing Company

Cognos, a leading global provider of business intelligence solutions, announced that The Boeing Company has chosen to implement Cognos business intelligence solutions in the Boeing Space and Communications engineering and management facilities in Huntington Beach and Seal Beach, Calif.; and Denver, Colo., as well as major manufacturing facilities in Palmdale, Calif.; Pueblo, Colo.; and Decatur, Ala. and launch facilities at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc, Calif. Cognos recognized the license revenue for this sale in its second quarter of the fiscal year.

Boeing Space and Communications is a diverse $10-billion enterprise whose more than 43,000 employees are involved in operating the space shuttle, building the International Space Station, overseeing the United States' missile defense and reconnaissance systems, and creating new satellite-based information and communications services.

"We plan to use Cognos business intelligence for reporting and analysis of information spanning all aspects of our financial and manufacturing operations, including indirect and direct cost management, financial planning, staffing, and factory management," said Jon Emery, Division Director of Business Management for Expendable Launch Systems. "We expect to significantly improve cost management by enabling front-line managers and analysts to rapidly identify root causes of problems requiring corrective action."

The initial implementation of Cognos will be to 2,000 users in the product lines under management by the Huntington Beach site, including the space shuttle, International Space Station, Expendable Launch Systems, Integrated Defense Systems, and Phantom Works programs. The implementation will be staffed by a cross functional team from Finance, Business Systems, and Information Technology.

"Working closely with an organization as respected as Boeing is an honor. Boeing is engaged in some of most complex, challenging projects ever undertaken and is a company that demands precision, high-quality, and mission critical performance from its suppliers and IT solutions," said Alan Rottenberg, senior vice president, e-Business Applications Business Unit, Cognos. "Cognos delivers the industry's broadest range of business intelligence solutions, allowing organizations to address the many challenges they face both in analyzing massive volumes of business information and driving that information into the hands of users at the right level of detail."

About Boeing

The Boeing Company is the largest aerospace company in the world, with its heritage mirroring the history of aviation. It is the world's largest manufacturer of commercial jetliners and military aircraft, and the nation's largest NASA contractor. In terms of sales, Boeing is the largest U.S. exporter. Total company revenues for 2000 were $51 billion. The global reach of the enterprise includes customers in 145 countries, employees in more than 60 countries and operations in 26 states. Worldwide, Boeing and its subsidiaries employ more than 198,000 people, with major operations in the Seattle-Puget Sound area of Washington state; Southern California; Wichita, Kan.; and St. Louis, Mo. Boeing is organized into seven major units: Commercial Airplanes, Space and Communications, Military Aircraft and Missiles, Shared Services, Air Traffic Management, Connexion by Boeing and Boeing Capital Corporation.

About Cognos

Cognos is a leading provider of enterprise business intelligence solutions that optimize the performance of the world's largest and most successful organizations. Founded in 1969, Cognos serves 18,000 customers in more than 120 countries around the world. Cognos business intelligence solutions and services are also available from more than 3,000 worldwide partners and resellers. For more information, visit the Cognos Web site at www.cognos.com.

Syncsort's Backup Express Partners With Raxco Software

Syncsort Incorporated, the respected developer of high-performance backup and data warehousing software, and Raxco Software Inc, a leading provider of systems management utilities, have entered a joint partnership offering two of their products in tandem. Recent benchmarks have shown that using the combination of Raxco's PerfectDisk 2000 and Syncsort's Backup Express can speed backup up to 50% over baseline.

After extensive testing of Raxco's PerfectDisk 2000, Syncsort determined that backup speeds can be improved by 30% - 50% by first defragmenting drives with PerfectDisk 2000. "With PerfectDisk 2000, we're assured that data files and all metadata files are defragmented in a single pass, which no other defragmenter can do," said Winston Hait, senior product manager for Syncsort. "In addition, PerfectDisk 2000 optimizes the disk, resulting in consolidated free space and a reduced rate of refragmentation that saves even more time and resources. PerfectDisk 2000 for Exchange helps further by compacting and defragging Exchange data stores."

"As the leader in defragmentation and optimization, Raxco Software is delighted to be partnering with a company with the stature of Syncsort," said Jim Williams, Windows product manager for Raxco Software. "The addition of Syncsort as a Raxco partner solidifies our position as the leader in this field and provides another channel for PerfectDisk 2000. The advanced capabilities of PerfectDisk and Backup Express will provide a powerful disk and backup management solution for customers demanding high performance and superior quality in their enterprises."

Fragmentation and Backup Speed

File fragmentation is a normal by-product of using a computer, occurring when files cannot be created contiguously or when file deletions or truncations cause "holes" of free space. Fragmented files take longer to read, and so slow data streaming, and therefore the backup process. For read-intensive applications like backup to realize their optimum performance, the files should be as contiguous as possible.

About Backup Express

Syncsort's Backup Express is an advanced, enterprise-wide backup and restore solution that supports NAS, NDMP, Storage Area Networks (SANs) and other network configurations. Its distributed architecture allows it to back up to any device in the network whether it is running UNIX, Windows, or NetWare, while maintaining a single central catalog for the entire enterprise. Backup Express can cluster tape drives, including large automated libraries, at any server on the enterprise; dynamically allocate drives within a SAN; provide three different backup options for NDMP-based systems; keep sensitive data off the network; and allow on-line backups of large database servers such as Oracle, SAP, MS Exchange, and SQL Server.

About PerfectDisk 2000

Raxco Software's PerfectDisk 2000 is a complete enterprise disk defragmentation solution. PerfectDisk 2000 was engineered as an industrial-strength defragmentation solution for today's distributed Windows networks. PerfectDisk 2000 is fast, thorough, scalable, flexible and safe. Among its features are:

• Completely defragments files in a single pass
• Defragments all 16 Metadata files, including the Master File Table
• Consolidates free space and organizes disk according to usage patterns to slow future re-fragmentation
• Automates the defragmentation of Exchange data stores
• Provides threshold management to prevent unnecessary defragmentation runs
• Offers a Network Scheduling Wizard to let users set, view and cancel schedules
• Provides offline defragmentation of the MFT and system files that is fully automated and requires no human intervention.

About Syncsort

Syncsort Incorporated is a leading developer of high-performance data warehousing software for mainframe, UNIX, and Windows environments. For more than 30 years, Syncsort has built a reputation for superior product performance and reliable technical support. An independent market research firm has named Syncsort as one of the top Data Warehouse 100 Vendors for three years in a row. Over 95 percent of the Fortune 100 companies are Syncsort customers, and Syncsort's products are used in more than 50 countries to back up and protect data in distributed environments, speed data warehouse processing, improve database loads and speed query processing. For more information, visit the Syncsort Web site at www.syncsort.com.

About Raxco Software

Raxco Software is a leading software engineering company that has been offering system utilities for more than 20 years. Its PerfectDisk 2000 is Windows 2000-certified and designed for Windows XP, and works on Microsoft Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP systems. Raxco also makes other products for Windows operating systems and suites of utilities for Compaq Computer's OpenVMS operating system. Raxco Software can be found on the Web at www.raxco.com.

Contact Joe Abusamra, Raxco Software Inc, 301-519-7835.

Wausau Financial Partners with Dot Hill

Dot Hill Systems Corp, a leading provider of carrier-class information storage and storage area network (SAN) solutions announced its partnership with Wausau Financial Systems (WFS), a leading developer and provider of transaction processing applications, to offer storage solutions to the payment and transaction processing industry. Dot Hill is exhibited its high-availability SANnet storage system at the IIPAC (Item and Image Processing Advisory Council) Conference in Milwaukee, WFS annual customer conference.

WFS provides its customers, such as banks, utilities and government agencies, with complete end-to-end solutions for check and remittance processing, from capture to archive and retrieval of information with its Optima3 and IMAGERPS applications and modules. WFS integrates Dot Hillıs SANnet 3000 series as the storage component into its solutions to enable end users to easily archive and retrieve their documents such as checks and customer data. Dot Hill's SANnet was selected by WFS primarily for its scalability and ease of use.

"Our software solutions can be integrated with a variety of different PC and server hardware, so the storage component has to be easy to integrate and configure," said Bill Cook, WFS System Engineering Manager. "SANnet is an ideal storage component for both our NT and Unix solutions."

Dot Hillıs chief technology officer, Dana Kammersguard, said, "SANnetıs open systems architecture was designed for ease of use, configuration and management, because thatıs what our customers want and need."

"SANnetıs 99.9998+ percent uptime gives our customers continuous computing with virtually no downtime. Dot Hill has a proven track record with the financial services industry, and we look forward to providing WFS with SANnet storage solutions for its customers in transaction processing."

About Dot Hill

Dot Hill is a leading independent provider of carrier-class data storage solutions and services. With SANnet solutions that include storage area networks, NEBS Level 3 certified systems for Telco and Internet operations, and world-class service capabilities, Dot Hill is uniquely positioned to address the storage requirements of mission-critical continuous computing environments. Dot Hill's customers include many of the world's leading Internet service providers, common carriers, service and equipment providers, advanced technology and telecommunications companies, and government agencies. Dot Hill is an ISO 9002 certified company, and its Web site is www.dothill.com.

About Wausau Financial Systems

Wausau Financial Systems (WFS) is a recognized leader in the development and implementation of knowledge-based products for the payment and transaction processing industry. WFS provides transaction-processing applications for all size companies ranging from Fortune 500 corporations to independent local financial institutions and commercial businesses worldwide. WFS applications are solutions that provide customers with the information they need to make informed business decisions. In addition to software and hardware options, the company offers comprehensive training, consultation, international image solutions, a unique associate reseller channel, 24-hour customer support, consumable supplies, and a 100% money-back guarantee. For more information on Wausau Financial Systems and its knowledge-based solutions, call 715-359-0427 or visit www.wausaufs.com.

Contact Carrie Koski, Wausau Financial Systems, 715-241-2451, ckoski@wausaufs.com.